Congress’ grip on the ecosystem, the academics, media houses and NGOs have been so strong that when Aam Aadmi Party, a political outfit sprouted from an NGO, the feeling of oneness took over and Kejriwal became everyone’s blue-eyed boy. People we so impressed that Rahul Gandhi, who was then the vice president of the grand old party, even said he would like to learn from the success of AAP.
And learn he did.
As we had reported last year in January, Rahul Gandhi has been doing everything AAP has done, or rather what Kejriwal has done. As could be seen, when Kejriwal accused Modi of working for Ambani-Adani, Rahul Gandhi said Modi only works for rich industrialists. During demonetization, when Kejriwal attacked Paytm, Rahul said: “Paytm means Pay to Modi”. When Kejriwal says Modi took bribes, Rahul says Modi took bribes. Both have blamed the media for being under ‘pressure’ from Modi government for not being critical enough of the central government. He even aped the farce that ‘fast’ is in Aam Aadmi Party.
And now that Rahul has Kejrified, and Kejriwal has morphed into a caricature in himself, media has again shifted their focus back to Rahul Gandhi and Congress.
You see, Kejriwal symbolized power without Congress. The Congress-led establishment, the NGOs, academics, media houses and everything minus the Congress itself. AAP was the ‘establishment’ officially trying to be government, without the mask. Know how criminals enter politics when they realise they could get the power themselves for the dirty work they do instead of doing it for other politicians? AAP was born out of the ecosystem when they realised why bother helping Congress win when you can get the power yourself. Example, founding member and now ousted member Yogendra Yadav was appointed by UPA on the National Advisory Committee (NAC) on Right to Education (RTE). In fact, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had even accused Kejriwal of having approached him to push his name in Sonia-Gandhi led NAC.
The ecosystem was trying to get rid of Congress to rule directly. Kejriwal was their hope.
But now it seems they have abandoned all hope. The ecosystem has now gone back to showing Rahul Gandhi, who has already positioned himself as UPA’s prime ministerial candidate for 2019. That despite the 2014 debacle, Congress and Rahul Gandhi were still their best bet.
So now, every time Rahul Gandhi manages to do even the smallest of the things right, he is hailed as the greatest visionary India has ever produced, even by those who are AAP inclined.
It was one of @RahulGandhi ‘s best press conferences in Bengaluru – confident,candid,witty, relaxed, engaging, clever and more@RahulGandhi is getting there, getting there,getting there
— Rupashree Nanda (@rupashreenanda) May 10, 2018
There have been instances where a journalist like Sagarika Ghose took to abusing an author who asked a tough question to Rahul Gandhi in Singapore and softball interviews of Rahul Gandhi where interviewer even expresses her desire to meet the real Pidi. With nowhere else to go, the ecosystem stayed invested in the Dynasty.
However, there’s a difference between Rahul Gandhi and his ancestors who controlled the ecosystem. While the party interests got priority in times of Indira and Sonia, Rahul, with very little to boast of, seems to be happy giving away the control to the establishment.
And precisely why the establishment has ditched Kejriwal and moved back to Congress.
